If you’re not familiar with, or have forgotten about the 2002 WB series, Birds of Prey, you should feel no shame. The series first episode grabbed huge ratings for the WB (7.9 million) but quickly shed viewers and never made it past its 13th episode. It’s a compelling idea, and in the right hands — today — it could be a huge hit for any network. The show is set in a future Gotham, long after Batman has gone into exile, where basically the descendants of the Batman mythology have taken over crime-fighting duties. Those include Huntress (Helena Kyle, the daughter of Batman and Selena Kyle), Oracle (the former Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police commissioner Gordon), and Black Canary (Dinah, daughter of … Black Canary).
It was meant to be the WB’s next Smallville, but it never caught on. There’s a pretty fascinating mythology behind the series, and it had a hell of an opening that featured the Joker killing Selena Kyle and then shooting (and paralyzing) Batgirl/Oracle. The Big Bad in the first season was Harley Quinn, played by Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller) in the series, although Sherilyn Fenn played the character in the unaired pilot (which you can watch if you purchase series one of the DVD).
For our purposes, both the unaired pilot and the reshot premiere featured Aaron Paul, who plays Jerry, an early friend of Dinah, who meets Jerry on the bus on her way to Gotham. Check it out at the 3:00 mark, and let’s hope that someone somewhere is smart enough to revive this idea, get a great cast behind it, and a big talent (a Whedon or Nolan brother?) to run the show.
If you’re curious about the fate of Aaron Paul’s “Jerry,” (I can’t find any more of the pilot online, although there are other means (wink/wink of watching it), our friend Jason Deas fills us in:
He got taken out by Selena/Huntress after Dina arrived in New Gotham. Apparently he was a pervy thug who just wanted to rob/rape/whatever her. So Selena showed up from nowhere and “bickity bam” he was taken out. Never to be seen for the rest of the episode. Holy bit parts, Batgirl!
(Hat Tip: The Green Lantern: Jason Deas)
